July 15, 2025 • 47 mins
Christians around the world recently remembered those who have given their lives to follow Jesus. Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs joins guest host Roy Patterson to talk about the Day of the Christian Martyr. Plus get your prayer list ready as we update you on current persecution in Syria and India. Be inspired to stand up for your faith and to be on your knees for our brothers and sisters around the world—on the next Equipped.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:20):
Welcome to equip with Chris Brooks. I'm Roy Patterson sitting
in for Chris. It is the day that the Lord
has made. Come on let's rejoice. Let's be glad in it.
Our God is still God. He's still Lord, and he's
worthy of all of the praise. I can't wait to
dive into the show today. We've got a special guest,
(00:41):
and I believe what he has to share will inspire
you to walk and talk and live in the spirit
and be all that God has called you to be.
I'm grateful for the team. My goodness, to have someone
on the board like Ryan McConaughey, and then to have
a producer like Tricia McMillan and to have folks on
(01:03):
the phones, we're going to open the phone lines, as
a matter of fact, so that you can call and
be a part of this discussion today. Hey, before I
announce our guest, let me pause and say thank God
for John MacArthur. What a wonderful pioneer. He sold so
many books, preached so many sermons, founded Grace Community Church,
(01:25):
and so many people were impacted by his ministry. And
so we just want to pause for a moment to
mention him and to say thank God for what God
has done through him. Hey, let me pause and thank
God for you as well. Maybe you won't sell a
lot of books or stand in front of millions of people,
but God is using you in that living room, in
that basement, in that backyard, wherever you might be. Just
(01:50):
continue to pray and sing that song. Have thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way. You're the potter, I'm the clay.
Mold me and make me after your will. While I'm waiting.
Yielded and still. Hey, thanks again for joining me here
on equipped with Chris Brooks. Let's continue to pray for
Chris and his family, his lovely wife Jody, and the precious,
(02:10):
precious loved ones in their home. Uh, he's still going
through a season of care for his daughter, and I
love the fact that he's put family first. And so
let's keep Chris and the the family in our prayers, okay? Hey,
today we've got a wonderful guest. His name is Todd Nettleton.
He's the vice president for message and the host of
(02:32):
voice of the Martyrs Radio. He is a speaker. He
is an author. He's a family man. He is someone
that loves the Lord and loves the body of Christ
and can see what's going on inside the church and
in the world. The voice of the martyrs is a
missionary organization serving persecuted Christians in the world's most difficult
(02:56):
and dangerous places to follow. Christ. Todd, how are you?
S2 (03:05):
Yeah, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.
S1 (03:07):
Oh, man, I'm so glad that you're here. When I
was looking at your bio and looking at voices of
the martyrs, I thought, this is going to be a
special time. Can you tell us how you got involved
with voice of the martyrs?
S2 (03:22):
I can tell you the short version, the long version
goes back to 1982. I was 12 years old and
my parents, we had a little family conference and my
parents said, hey, we think God is calling us to
go to Papua New Guinea. And I was just about
to enter junior high. I was excited about school, sports
and lots of activities and it was 3 to 1.
(03:44):
I voted no, let's not go to Papua New Guinea
and everyone else voted yes. Let's go to Papua New Guinea.
But we decided I and I said, you know, if
that's what God is calling us to do, that that's
what we need to do. Sure. And so 12 years old,
I moved off to Papua New Guinea. And really, some
of the seeds that God planted in my life during
those four years we lived in Papua New Guinea. We
(04:05):
didn't have a television. So I learned how to read
for fun and enjoyment. Uh guess what? Today I'm a writer. Well,
if you're going to be a writer, you better be
a reader. And so that is one of those seeds.
I love getting on an airplane and going someplace I
have never been before, and meeting new people, trying to
figure out a little bit of the language, hey, how
(04:26):
do I find a bathroom in this country? What are
the foods that I should eat? What are the foods
that I should definitely run away from?
S3 (04:33):
Right?
S2 (04:34):
Those kind of things are fun to me. And all
of that started at age 12 when we got on
that airplane and flew across the Pacific. And like I
say at the time, I was a no vote. I
was like, no, I don't want to go. Uh, but
the Lord already had in mind what he wanted me
to do with my life. And he started planting seeds
even in that trip to Papua New Guinea. And so
(04:55):
we came home four years later. I eventually went to college,
I studied communications, I was a sportswriter for a little
while at a local paper, uh, and then a job
opened up at voice of the martyrs. And the person
who hired me is married to my college roommate, and
so she was given the task of building a communications
department at Vom. And they took us, my wife and I,
(05:18):
out to dinner, and she said, I need someone who
can write press releases and tell stories. And I said, well,
I can write press releases and I can definitely tell stories.
Let's go. And that was almost 28 years ago now.
So 27 in serving in Vom. And just what a
blessing it has been over those years to meet so
(05:38):
many heroes of the faith. I absolutely I get to
sit down and drink tea and drink coffee with the
Apostle Paul's and the Apostle Peter's of today and ask
them questions. Hey, what? You know what? What was it
that got you singing in that jail cell? How did
you decide what song to sing? I get to have
those conversations with today's heroes of the faith, and it
(06:00):
is just such a privilege to be able to serve
in this way.
S1 (06:04):
When I think of missionary work, I think of people
who are willing to stand when everybody else is sitting down,
or people who are willing to speak up when others
are quiet. I am convinced that people need to share
the gospel, whether it's on the South Side of Chicago,
the east side of Cleveland, in the Tampa area, wherever
(06:27):
it might be. But we also need to understand that
there is a danger zone that comes with this. Let's
talk about the mission of voice of the martyrs. Tell
us what it's about and and how God is using vom.
S2 (06:41):
Well, the voice of the martyrs is a ministry, as
you mentioned, to persecuted Christians. So we are working in
more than 70 countries around the world where persecution for
your faith in Christ is part of following Christ. When
you come to Christ in these places, you know this
is going to cost me something. Maybe it'll cost me
my family, maybe it'll cost me my home, maybe it'll
(07:02):
cost me my job, maybe it will cost me my life.
But you know, from day one, if I'm going to
follow Jesus, there's there's going to be a price to
be paid.
S3 (07:10):
Yeah, yeah.
S2 (07:11):
Voice of the martyrs seeks to come alongside those who
are paying that price, to encourage them, to equip them,
to let them know they're not alone, and to let
them know the body of Christ around the world is
with them. We're standing with them. One of the really
unique things about the DNA of voice of the martyrs
is our founders. Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and his wife Sabina
(07:31):
were persecuted Christians. Pastor Richard spent 14 years in prison
in Communist Romania. His wife Sabina spent three years herself
in prison.
S3 (07:40):
Wow.
S2 (07:40):
Plus all the years living without Richard while he was
in prison. So when they stood up and said, hey,
we need to help persecuted Christians, they knew exactly what
they were talking about. They knew how desperately that help
was needed. And they also understood, though, that that God
works through persecution. God strengthens the church. He spreads the gospel.
There are blessings to be found in the midst of persecution.
(08:03):
They understood that side of the story as well. So
the the ministry has always been about persecuted Christians in
those hostile areas and restricted nations, but it is also
about American Christians who need to hear those stories. They
need to know that God is faithful, even when we're suffering,
even when we're in a situation we would not have chosen,
God is still faithful. God is still able to advance
(08:25):
his kingdom through those circumstances. And it's we get great
blessings as American Christians who aren't persecuted by knowing the
stories of our brothers and sisters, and by understanding God's faithfulness,
even in the midst of really difficult circumstances.
S3 (08:41):
Mm.
S1 (08:41):
I'm fascinated about the support factor, the the fact that
you guys are trying to assist, to encourage, to help
take us a little bit deeper. What do you do
to minister to either those who are at death's door
or for the family that's left behind? Are there some
specific things that you you do?
S2 (09:03):
There are certainly some specific things we do, but it
is always feel driven and we are always working with
local church leaders in that country. So, so our staff
that goes into a place like Nigeria doesn't land with
sort of a menu of here's what Vom could do
for you. Which one do you want? Instead, they come
(09:24):
alongside church leaders in that location and they say, hey,
what are you doing? How are things going? Where are
the places that we could help you and what would
that help look like? And so in many cases, you
mentioned someone who maybe their husband is a pastor and
he's in prison. They they need to make sure they
have a roof over their head. They need to make
sure that their kids can still afford school fees while
(09:46):
he's in prison. We want to help with those kinds
of needs. In some places, somebody's been injured because of persecution,
and they need to go to a doctor. And in
their culture in that society, as a Christian, they might
not be able to get to a good doctor, but
we can come alongside and say, hey, we're going to
cover that hospital bill. Make sure you go to a
good hospital and get a good doctor. We'll take care
(10:08):
of whatever the fees are that are with that. Sometimes
it's hiring a lawyer. Uh, you know, in some places,
I think of India. The Constitution says India has religious
freedom now. They're sort of running away from that right now.
But there are pastors in jail, and it can simply
be hiring a lawyer who will go to court, represent
them and say, hey, wait a minute, this is not constitutional,
(10:30):
what you're doing. And so that could be as little
as like 200 bucks to get a pastor out of prison.
Every one of those projects is different. Every one of
them is driven by what our brothers and sisters in
that country tell us they need.
S1 (10:45):
Well, that's extremely important, and to be honest, it's very inspiring.
Love what you are doing and how God is using
voice of the martyrs. We've got Todd Nettleton on the
line and this is what we will do. We'll hear
some stories about men and women who have decided I'm
going to follow Jesus no matter what. This gospel that
(11:06):
we've got is so precious and so profound and so powerful.
We've got to share it with this dying world. Hey,
I'm Roy Patterson. I'm sitting in for Chris Brooks. Thanks
for joining us here on equipped.
S4 (11:30):
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S1 (12:09):
Welcome back to equipped with Chris Brooks I'm Roy Patterson
sitting in today. We've got Todd Nettleton with us today.
And it's just fascinating to hear what our brothers and
sisters are going through around the world. Hey, before we
hear some more stories of faith and commitment, Todd, I
just I just want to know, um, when we think
(12:33):
of folks in the Bible who've gone through who have
been martyrs like Stephen and James and Peter and church
fathers like Polycarp, what made them willing to pay the
ultimate price?
S2 (12:47):
You know, I think it's such a great question. And
I think at the end of the day, they realized
that what they had in Christ was worth more than
what they were giving up in, in this life.
S3 (12:59):
Yeah. Yeah.
S2 (12:59):
And I think once you understand that sort of value proposition, um,
it's like, okay, well, you're going to take my life. Okay,
that's fine, because I have something more valuable than that.
I have eternal life. Um, the other thing that happens, though, is,
is just the experience of Christ's presence is so real
that nobody can talk you out of it. I think
(13:21):
of brothers and sisters that we have in in the
country of Laos, in Southeast Asia and, and in some
cases they meet Jesus on Tuesday and they're persecuted on Thursday,
and they stand up in their faith. It's not like
they have to go to Bible school and then go
to seminary to get ready for that. It's like, no, no,
I don't care what you say because I met Jesus
(13:42):
and he is real. In some cases it is he.
I was sick and now I am well healed. Me.
I know he's real. So if you tear down my house,
or if you kick me out of the village, you know,
that's fine, because I know he's real. And so once
they've had that experience of the reality of Christ, and
certainly when we talk about Peter and Paul and some
(14:04):
of those church fathers, they definitely experienced that encounter with Christ.
And then you can't be talked out of that.
S1 (14:14):
It really is something about being born again. Finding that
precious pearl in the field and saying, I'm willing to
pay whatever price for it. Now, I'll be honest with you, Todd,
in America, most of us are thinking Jesus is a
great accessory. Now, I'm just talking about the message that
I've heard over and over again. He will make me happy.
He will give me a car. He will give me
(14:37):
a roof over my head. He'll do all this stuff.
All I got to do is accept him. In my life.
And for many believers in our country, we think, ah,
persecution is a thing of the past. Church fathers, uh, folks,
back in Bible days, what are you seeing on a
global stage?
S2 (14:55):
Let me talk a little bit about that message, because
one of the challenges of that, then, if the gospel
that you heard is accept Jesus because he's going to
make your life.
S3 (15:06):
Better, right? Right.
S2 (15:07):
And then hardship comes. It knocks you off course.
S3 (15:11):
It really does.
S2 (15:11):
Because you're like, wait a minute, I thought Jesus was
going to make my life better. And now my wife
has cancer. Now I lost my job. Where's Jesus in
all of this?
S3 (15:20):
Yeah.
S2 (15:21):
The gospel message in a place like China or Iran
is very, very different. It is come to Jesus. He's
going to make your eternity better. But your life here
on earth is probably going to get worse. Like, just
prepare yourself. In fact, I've talked with evangelists who before
they will like, pray and baptize somebody. They they ask
(15:43):
them the hard like, are you ready for your family
to reject you? Yes, I'm ready for that. Are you
ready to lose your job? Yes. I'm ready. Okay. Now
I'll baptize you because you already understand this is going
to cost you. So I think one of the challenges
for us as American believers is not to share that
Jesus wants to make everything great for you, come and
(16:03):
meet him, but to share that, yeah, he's going to
call you to sacrifice sometimes. Yeah, you're going to have
hardship in your life, but he's going to walk beside
you through that. He's even going to carry you part
of the time through that. That message. Then when hardship comes,
we're like, oh yeah, they told me this was going
to happen. Instead of Jesus, where are you? How could
you let these things happen to me? That's the difference
(16:26):
in the gospel message. And it produces different fruit. It
produces different results.
S1 (16:31):
All right. So when we think of countries like Laos
and India, etc., there are people there who've lost everything.
Land has been stripped from them and lives have been taken.
Talk about the global stage. What are you seeing?
S2 (16:46):
You know, in a lot of places we see persecution increasing.
I think of China in the last 5 to 10 years,
persecution in China has increased dramatically. The government now. Ten
years ago, we would talk about persecution by province. You
would say, hey, in this province there's a lot of persecution.
But in this province, over here, there is not a
(17:08):
lot of persecution. The church is really operating with a
lot of autonomy. What we see today is this is
coming from the national government in Beijing, and I believe
it is driven by XI Jinping, by the president of China.
He before he was president, he was a provincial leader,
and his province was one of those that had a
lot of persecution. He was really trying to control the church.
(17:31):
He was really trying to close down unregistered churches. And
I believe he sees that as as part of what
made him successful. Look, I was a provincial leader. We
persecuted the church and I got a promotion. Now I'm
the president of the whole country. I better keep doing
what I've been doing. And so he has brought that
to the national level. And persecution is driven by Beijing.
(17:54):
In fact, we've heard from Christians around China that Beijing
is sending out trainers to local police. They are saying,
this is how you control religion. This is how you
do it. So that's a place we're seeing it get worse.
We're seeing it. We're seeing a lot of persecution in
the Middle East and persecution in some cases getting very,
very violent, very hard there. There's a good side to
(18:17):
that story, though, as as I say, there is more persecution.
One of the things that is also happening is the
church is growing. And so when you talk about like
North Africa and you say, wow, there's more persecution in
North Africa. Well, part of the reason for that is
because there are more Christians in North Africa. There are
more people following Jesus there. So there are, of course,
(18:37):
more targets for persecution simply because there are more followers
of Christ.
S1 (18:43):
It really is an amazing thing. Um, it seems like
as a church grows, there's some growing pains. And it
seems like persecution is is part of it. Where on
the one hand, you've got, um, the world, you've got
the government that wants to oppress and and hold people back.
On the other hand, it really is a satanic drive,
(19:06):
a satanic move to, um, to tear the church down.
Is it true that where there is persecution, there is
more power? And the gospel seems to go forth a
little longer, harder? People are more aware of Jesus? Is
that what you've seen?
S2 (19:24):
I think it's often true. I wouldn't say 100% of
the time that's true. I think of I had a
conversation with Nick Ripken, the author of The Insanity of God,
and he talked about in Somalia. They essentially hunted Christians
and almost wiped out the church.
S3 (19:39):
Wow.
S2 (19:40):
Um, so so, you know, I like I said, I
don't want to say 100% of the time.
S3 (19:44):
Sure.
S2 (19:44):
But there are certainly ways that persecution spreads the gospel. And,
you know, we look at the book of acts, this
is not a new thing. This goes back to the
book of acts. One of the things that happens is
as Christians are able to respond to their persecutors with
love and forgiveness, which is a Holy Spirit thing. It
is not a natural response. It is a Holy Spirit
(20:07):
empowered response to say, hey, even though you're persecuting me,
I love you. I'm praying for you. I'm praying that
God will bless you and your family even though you've
locked me in prison. When that happens, the person who
is persecuting and all the people around who are seeing that,
they look at that and they say, how did they
do that? Well, wait a minute. And they start to say,
(20:29):
there must be something real to this Jesus stuff, because
look at how his followers respond when we persecute them.
They love us when we are harsh towards them, they
pray for us. There has to be something real because
they see that response. And and they know, just like
we know that's not natural. Our natural fleshly response is, hey,
(20:51):
if you hit me, I'm going to hit you.
S3 (20:52):
Back, right? Right.
S2 (20:53):
But Christians say, I'm going to pray God's blessings on you.
That is one of the ways the gospel spreads, because
the persecutors see that all the people around see that
and they start asking questions. And that's, you know, the
first step of, wait, what? What is different about these Christians?
We just had a conversation with a lady on voice
of the Martyrs radio, Sister Nada from Iran, and she
(21:15):
came to faith in Christ after after really calling out
to Allah. She was trying to serve Allah. And finally
she said she would start vacuuming because the vacuum made
a lot of noise and she would literally yell at Allah, Allah,
you're not helping me. You can't do anything for me.
Why aren't you showing up? Then a relative came and
visited and showed shared Christ with her. She became a
(21:37):
follower of Christ and within two weeks her husband. Now
their marriage had been really on the cusp of divorce.
Within two weeks of her coming to faith in Christ,
her husband took her aside and said, what? What happened
to you? Like, what is different about you? What changed
that led to a conversation which led her husband to
also follow Christ. They became evangelists, church planters working in Iran.
(21:59):
Very difficult situation, facing a lot of persecution. But that's
what happened because he saw how different she was when
she was walking with Jesus.
S1 (22:09):
What a wonderful change is brought forth in the lives
of believers when Jesus is real. All right. So two
questions are in my mind. Um, I think I'll go
with this one. Um, when you think of the American church,
do you ever think this persecution is coming our way?
We can. We can be as comfortable as we want,
but it's coming. Problems are coming. Do you ever think
(22:32):
along those lines?
S2 (22:35):
Uh, as an American Christian, I try not to. It's like.
S3 (22:40):
I don't.
S2 (22:40):
I don't I want the fruit of persecution, but I
don't want the persecution, right.
S3 (22:44):
Right, right.
S2 (22:44):
I want all this, all this great stuff that comes
out of it. I think when you look at our
culture and you look at how the winds are blowing,
I think you have to say, yeah, there there could
be hardship coming our way. And also, as you look
into the Scripture, you know, Jesus said, the world hates me.
And if you follow me, the world is going to
hate you, too.
S3 (23:04):
Yeah. Yeah.
S2 (23:05):
For most of us as American Christians, that has not
been our experience. And so you read those verses. You
look at the way the wind is blowing. What I
encourage people is you need to prepare yourself for persecution.
If you're prepared and persecution starts tomorrow, then you're prepared.
And if you're prepared and it doesn't start for 20 years,
(23:25):
or it doesn't start until after you go to heaven,
that's okay. You were still prepared. And so I think
we as American Christians need to prepare ourselves. And I
think there's two ways to do that. One is, is
the Scripture we talked about that. It talks about persecution.
The New Testament talks a lot about persecution.
S3 (23:43):
And how.
S2 (23:43):
To follow Christ in the midst of that. The second
way we prepare and I ii like a football analogy.
So if I'm going to play the Patriots on Sunday,
I'm going to watch the video of the team that
played the Patriots and beat them last Sunday. I want
to see what plays did they run? How did they
do that? We have the video of persecution. We have
the stories of Christians who have been victorious in the
(24:05):
face of persecution. We can go to school on those
stories and say, hey, what did they do? How did
they meet together? How did they encourage each other? What happened?
That's another way that we prepare ourselves. And as I say,
I don't want to say, you know, persecution is absolutely coming.
Here's what it's going to start. I do want to
say be ready. Be ready yourself. Make sure that your
(24:28):
children are ready. Make sure that your grandchildren are ready.
Because if we're ready, then we're ready. Whether it starts
tomorrow or sometime in the future, we're ready to keep
on advancing the gospel even in the face of persecution.
S1 (24:42):
So important, so, so important. And I think for most
of us, we've had people roll their eyes. We've had
people laugh at us. We've had people who've talked about
us behind our backs. And there are some people that
have been roughed up for their faith. But as far
as knives being pulled, guns being drawn, that just has
not been the case. What I do admire about those
(25:04):
that have had that persecution experiences the mindset of I'd
rather have Jesus than silver or gold, I'd rather have
Jesus than riches untold. I'm thrilled with the fact that
you are doing what you're doing. We're going to take
a break. I cannot wait to hear more of what
God is doing, and I really want to know if
there's some some signposts along the way that will say, hey,
(25:29):
this could be an indication that trouble is on the horizon.
And as you've already mentioned, hey, let's be prayerful. Let's
get in the word and let's fortify ourselves so that
we continue to let our lights shine. Henry Patterson I'm
sitting in for Chris Brooks here on equip. So grateful
for Todd Nettleton and what he's doing with voice of
(25:51):
the martyrs. Important stuff. Really, really important stuff. So I
want you to keep it locked right where it is.
I'm thankful for you. And we'll take some calls right
after this. On equipped. Welcome back to equipped. Have you
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Org that's equipped radio.org. We've got Todd Nettleton with us
today a voice of the martyrs. It's a joy to
(27:06):
have him with us. And what a conversation. It's inspiring.
It's what we need to look at. Hey, Todd, you're
just getting back from a meeting with Vom workers in Asia.
Can you talk about it?
S2 (27:20):
Yeah, this was a gathering of, uh, some of our
frontline workers that that serve on the ground in places
like Vietnam and Laos and Indonesia and Burma. And, uh,
the meeting was for encouragement, spiritual encouragement for them, some
some training for them, for me, it was a chance
to fellowship and just hear about what they do. These
(27:41):
are the people who are on the ground and and
when we get a call that, you know, hey, a
pastor's house has been burned down. They're the ones who
get in a taxicab or get on a train or
get on a bus, and they go to the village
where the pastor's house has just been burned down. And
they say, okay, pastor, are you okay? Is your family okay?
What do you need? How can we help? And so
(28:01):
they really see and have to process a lot in
the course of their work. And one of the staff
members talked about, uh, just last year, one of the
people that he was working with was shot and killed, right,
right in his front yard, right in front of his
wife and kids. It was a pastor who had been
threatened repeatedly, uh, told, you know, stop what you're doing.
(28:22):
Stop evangelizing. And two men showed up on a motorbike.
They asked for him at the door, and then they
shot him. And are my coworkers talked about how hard
that has been to to just process like. Like this
guy was gunned down for the work that he was doing.
We're walking with his widow through the grief and the
(28:43):
trauma and the upsetness and the, you know, how do
I keep going? What do we do? And that is
a heavy weight that that many of my coworkers who
are on in those frontline positions, they bear that weight.
And so to be able to go and meet with
them and pray with them and encourage them, uh, was
a great privilege for me. But it also brought I
(29:04):
came back with a new respect and a new desire
to pray for those frontline workers, because it is it
is a tough job. It is a difficult thing to
go through that and to to have encounters with loss
and grief and suffering all the time as a part
of your job. Uh, it's a tough job. And so
I would encourage our listeners, you know, pray, pray for
(29:24):
viewing workers who are out in the field because they
do have a very difficult job.
S1 (29:29):
It is difficult. My goodness. Hey, I want to open
the phone lines. Maybe you'd like to talk to Todd
and share your story. Maybe you've been persecuted. Maybe you
know someone that has laid down their lives for the faith.
We love to get a brief comment from you. Maybe
you have a question. Here's the number to call. It's 87754836758775483675.
(29:54):
All right. So Todd, you've also had the opportunity to, um,
to hear the story about Syria and the church bombing there.
Bring us up to speed on that.
S2 (30:04):
Yeah, I was interested, even as I opened up my
news app this morning. There's been violence in Syria again
over the weekend, this time targeting the Druze religious minority.
There was a church bombing on June 22nd. Uh, gunmen
slash bomber came into a Greek Orthodox church. So this
is a sort of a visible above ground building church.
(30:26):
He came in, he opened fire. And then, as I believe,
as they closed in to try to stop him, he
blew himself up. And so 25 people killed dozens of
Christians injured in this attack. And this is happening. So
last December, a new government took over Syria. They pushed
out Bashar al Assad. And as they took power, they
(30:48):
made a lot of promises. They said a lot of
things about a Syria that is safe for religious minorities,
a Syria that is safe for all the different ethnic minorities.
And this attack, other attacks, the violence that's happened even
over the weekend is really saying all of that was
just talk like they are not living up to that.
(31:09):
They are not protecting Christians. The other thing I want
to remind our listeners about, so this was a Greek
Orthodox Church that is a traditional Christian community in Syria.
When they say, we want to protect Christians, that's what
they're saying. They want to protect. And again, there's a
lot of questions about how much they really want to.
They are not saying they will protect someone born in
(31:31):
a muslim family who is now a follower of Jesus Christ.
Maybe they had a dream where Christ appeared to them.
Maybe they heard a Christian broadcast, or they met a
Christian who led them to faith in Christ. But because
they were born in a muslim family, they are not
offered any protection. They are considered an apostate. The Quran
teaches that an apostate should be given one opportunity to
(31:52):
return to Islam, and if they refuse, they should be executed.
And so when you hear the Syrian government talk about, hey,
we want to protect Christians, make sure you understand they
are talking about traditional Christian communities. They are absolutely not
talking about Muslim background believers who do not have protection
in Syria or frankly, in most other Muslim countries because
(32:16):
they are seen as apostates.
S3 (32:18):
Mhm.
S1 (32:19):
You wrote a book called when Faith is forbidden. And um,
as I hear you talk about these different scenarios, I'm
fascinated and I tremble a little bit because it is
so different from what we are hearing in our country.
And I'm a preacher. I say to people, hey, you
want Jesus in your life, I want you to come forward.
(32:41):
We're going to pray this prayer. But I'm trying to
remember the last time I said to them, you will
be ostracized. You will be criticized. You could suffer physical
harm for your faith, but Jesus is worth accepting. He
is worth following. Talk about your book when faith is
forbidden and and what you've discovered.
S2 (33:03):
Well, the book is published by Moody Publishers, and, uh,
it is it's really an invitation to you as a reader.
Why don't why don't we go on a trip together
and let's go meet some persecuted Christians? And so it
is written as a 40 day sort of travelogue slash devotional.
And every day during that 40 days, we're going to
hear a story from a persecuted Christian. And these are
(33:24):
stories that I've heard face to face over my 20
plus years here at voice of the martyrs. And my
promise to the reader is, if you spend 40 days
hanging out with persecuted Christians, your faith is going to
look different on day 41 than it did when we
started this journey. Because when you meet these brothers and
sisters and you hear how willing they are to sacrifice
(33:45):
and and you see the joy on their faces, that's
one of the really strange things. Almost as I go
to meet persecuted Christians, I remember early in my time
at Vom, I sort of had this idea that, you know,
I'm going to go from America, and isn't it great
that I can be there because I'm going to cheer
them up? They're probably very discouraged and depressed. They've been persecuted.
(34:06):
And then I would get there and they would be
filled with joy, more joy than I see at my
church on a Sunday morning. They would be filled with
the joy of the Lord, and I had to learn
very quickly. Lord, actually, I'm not here to encourage them.
I'm here to learn from them because they're doing something right.
And so, like I say, that that's the premise of
the book, is let's go together, let's spend 40 days
(34:28):
and let's meet a persecuted Christian every single day. Let's
hear their story. Let's drink a cup of tea with them.
And on day 41, your faith will look different, because
there's no way it can't look different. After meeting these
brothers and sisters and hearing their stories.
S1 (34:42):
Here's the number to call 87754836758775483675. If you'd like to
talk to Todd and share your story of persecution or
someone that you know has been persecuted, somehow you've been
inspired by this conversation, please give us a call (877)Â 548-3675. So, Todd,
(35:07):
as I'm hearing you, I'm thinking about, um, some people
in America, Tom Skinner is is one of them. He
was the leader of a gang and found Christ, as
it were, and told the gang, you know, I've decided
to follow Jesus, and he had trained them. No one
gets out of this gang alive. And now he's turning
his back. And as he's walking out, he's expecting someone
(35:30):
to stab him, to beat him with a chain, to
shoot him. And by God's tremendous grace, he walks out unscathed.
As he's walking down the street, a couple of his
lieutenants run up behind him, and he braces himself because
he's got the kind of salvation that says, don't fight back,
don't pick up a weapon. And they stand in front
(35:50):
of him and say, what was that? What? What happened?
And he said, well, I just testified, I've got Jesus
in my life. They said, no, not that. The fact
that when you made the statement you made, we were
going to kill you. And something stopped us. We could
not physically move. So we want to know what that was.
And those guys accepted Christ as Savior. It seems like
(36:14):
it's two sides. It's one where God is protecting and
the other side. God gives grace so that you can
still die. You can still die believing who he is
and what he wants to do. so. So have you
heard both sides of that story, Todd?
S2 (36:31):
Yeah, I you know, one of my favorite stories from
early on in my time is a group in Bangladesh.
A group of radical Muslims came to the home of
a Christian. Their intent was to burn down the house,
to harm the Christian inside. When they arrived and got
close to the building, they heard this Christian inside praying
for them. He was praying, God, move in our village.
(36:53):
Bring people to faith. Help these men to come to
know you and similar situation like it was like they said,
they ran into like a force field around this house
where they they could not physically approach the house to
light it on fire or to attack the man. It
was something the power of God was there protecting him.
S3 (37:12):
Mhm.
S1 (37:13):
Fascinating. I appreciate what you are sharing today. Can't wait
to get back to hear some more stories of what
God is doing for those who have been delivered from situations,
and those who said I'd rather have Jesus than to
have safety and to have comfort. Hey, you guys, stick around.
Todd Nettleton, a voice of the martyrs, is with us today.
(37:34):
Inspiring stories of folks who committed to Jesus no matter what.
I'm Roy Patterson. I'm sitting in for Chris Brooks. Thanks
for hanging out with me. I'd love to hear from you. (877)Â 548-3675.
This is equipped.
S4 (37:57):
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more than ever. That's our mission here at Equip to
provide biblical wisdom for life's toughest questions. When you step
in as an equipper, you're not just giving your monthly
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(38:19):
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S1 (38:38):
Welcome back to equip with Chris Brooks I'm Roy Patterson
sitting in. We've got Todd Nettleton of Voice of the
martyrs with us today. Fascinating, inspiring. Oh, it's causing me
to look at Christ in a new way and to
live a determined life no matter what. I've got to
have Jesus, and I want to make him known. Hey, Todd,
(39:01):
you were telling me about Ethiopia. Can you let our
audience know what's up?
S2 (39:05):
Yeah. This is an interesting story. So this is about
an evangelist who was martyred during the month of May. Uh,
his name is Ibrahim Mohammed. And I often tell people I,
I love to meet Christians named Muhammad, uh, because that
means they weren't born in a Christian family.
S3 (39:21):
You know, Christian.
S2 (39:22):
Christian parents aren't naming their kids Mohammed in Ethiopia. This
is a young man who came to faith in Christ
in 2021. So just four years ago, immediately as he
became a believer, he started telling other people. And within
a year, he had led 80 other people to faith
in Christ.
S3 (39:40):
Wow.
S2 (39:40):
Just as a brand new believer, like he's like, man,
this is so great. This is so exciting. I got
to tell everyone I know. He continued that evangelism, in
spite of a lot of pressure against him, there were
threats against him. People told him, shut up, stop talking.
You've got to stop what you're doing. He just kept
on telling people about Jesus. And it seems like what
(40:02):
sort of crossed over the line is. Earlier this year,
he set aside a part of his property to build
a church building, and they started construction on a church
building where these believers could gather. And again, it was
on his property, but he set aside some of it.
They started building a church. that seems to sort of
(40:23):
have been the last straw. Okay, now you're not just
leading people to Jesus. You're going to build a church building.
You're going to gather Christians together in our city, in
our town. We can't let you do that. And so
on May 15th, our brother Ibrahim Muhammad was shot by
two men dressed in Islamic clothing. He was taken to
(40:43):
the hospital. He died three days later from those injuries.
But this is a young man, only four years walking
with Jesus, but such a bold evangelist that he was
seen as such a threat to the people around him,
that he was shot and killed, laying down his life
for Christ.
S1 (41:01):
There's a quote by Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr that says,
any man that's not willing to die for something is
not fit to live. And I think when people see
that we're willing to die for our faith in Jesus Christ,
it's a testimony that shakes them to the core. I
got to get your perspective on Steven and the fact
that he was stoned and the Apostle Paul happened to
(41:23):
be there with a coat check line. Can you talk
about that?
S2 (41:28):
Yeah. The thing about the story of Stephen that blesses
me every time I read it is he looked up
to heaven. He saw heaven opened and Jesus standing at
the right hand of Christ. And I, in my telling
of that story, or the way I interpret that, Stephen
was getting a standing ovation from Jesus Christ.
S3 (41:49):
Himself.
S2 (41:50):
As he was willing to lay down his life, and
as he forgave the people who were throwing stones at him. Father,
forgive them. I think when you end your life by
getting a standing ovation from Jesus himself, you can only
imagine when he arrived at heaven's gate. Well done, good
and faithful servant. I saw what you did. I saw
(42:12):
how you witnessed right up to your last breath. Um,
that's the part of Stephen's story that. And then you
mentioned Saul was standing there. Saul approved of what they
were doing.
S3 (42:23):
Yeah.
S2 (42:23):
And yet then he met Jesus and his life was
completely turned around. And again, it's like. It's like we
talked about with with friends. Even today, when they meet
Jesus face to face, they see him. They see his
hand at work. They cannot be dissuaded from following him
no matter what the cost is.
S3 (42:42):
Hmm hmm.
S1 (42:44):
All right, so you are involved in voice of the martyrs,
and you've seen so much. Heard so much. You've been
the child of a missionary. How has vom affected your
Christian walk?
S2 (42:57):
Such a great question. I have learned so much from
brothers and sisters around the world who have suffered, and
being able to ask them questions one on a very
practical level, one of the things that has changed is
how committed I am to reading God's Word.
S3 (43:13):
Hmm.
S2 (43:13):
I have met brothers and sisters who say, yeah, I
prayed for ten years that I could have my own Bible.
And and I sort of sheepishly, I think, reach into
my pocket and put my hand on my phone and think, wow,
I have I have multiple translations on my phone in my.
S3 (43:31):
Pocket.
S2 (43:32):
All the time, every day. But am I reading it?
Am I studying it? Am I letting it, you know,
affect me and wash me from the inside out? That
is something that has become a. Every year my wife
and I read through the Bible from start to finish.
We typically use, you know, a different plan from year
to year, maybe read a different translation from year to year.
(43:52):
But every year we want to read through God's Word.
And and that is a direct result of meeting brothers
and sisters who are willing to go to prison to
have a copy of the Bible, or to give someone
a copy of the Bible, and how that has impacted
me and how I every time I open the Bible.
I think this is a privilege. This is a blessing.
Can you imagine that we have this freedom? 24 seven
(44:15):
we can read God's Word anytime we want. We just
have to pull our phone out of our pocket. Brothers
and sisters around the world. Some of them would be
flabbergasted by that, and.
S3 (44:25):
They would.
S2 (44:25):
Certainly be flabbergasted that so many of us don't read
our Bibles. They're like, wait, you you have ten copies
of the Bible and you don't read any of them.
What what what are you doing? Like, what's going on
with you?
S3 (44:36):
Right.
S2 (44:36):
And so that is something that just very practically has
impacted the way I walk with Jesus. And it's directly
the result of the testimonies of my persecuted brothers and sisters.
S1 (44:48):
I'm thinking about that quote from Jim Elliot. He is
no fool. Are you familiar with that, with that quote?
S2 (44:52):
Absolutely.
S1 (44:53):
Can you share it? And, you know, I got like
25 seconds and just just talk about it a little bit.
S2 (44:58):
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot lose. And we have brothers
and sisters that are living that out even at this
moment around the world.
S1 (45:09):
So, so powerful. So for those who are being persecuted
and their families, how can we pray for them?
S2 (45:15):
Pray for God to empower them to suffer joyfully and
to forgive those who are persecuting them. Of course, we
want to pray for God's protection, but pray that they
will be faithful to Christ, even if there is difficulty,
even if there is persecution. Pray that they will stand
faithfully for Christ. The other thing I pray frankly is, Lord,
(45:35):
let them know that I'm praying for them, because one
of the lies of Satan is you're all alone. Nobody
cares about you. You're forgotten. So Lord, through the Holy Spirit,
let them know right now that I'm praying for them.
I've heard stories of how God answered that prayer, so
I know he does. But that's one of the ways
that I encourage people to pray for our persecuted brothers
and sisters.
S1 (45:56):
Before we go, let us know how people can get
in touch with voice of the martyrs.
S2 (46:01):
Persecution is the voice of the martyrs. Website. Persecution. Make
sure you sign up for the free monthly magazine while
you're there. It's right at the top of the page. Persecution. Com.
S1 (46:13):
I'm really inspired, Todd, by the work that you're doing
and voice of the martyrs. It's just inspiring me to
dig deeper, to reach higher, and to go further and
believe that God can use my pain, my persecution, my
difficulties for his glory and his honor. I want you
guys to reach out to Todd and Todd. Give us
that address one more time, please.
S2 (46:34):
Persecution.
S1 (46:36):
Make sure you do that, okay? I'm Roy patterson. I'm
sitting in for Chris Brooks. What a joy it is
to share with you. I'll be back another day. Cannot
wait to hang out with you. Equipped is a production
of the Moody Radio Network under the umbrella of the
Moody Bible Institute. I'm Roy Patterson. I thank God for you.
Keep going. Okay. Keep going. God is with you. Until
(46:58):
next time you walk in grace and peace.
Welcome to equip with Chris Brooks. I'm Roy Patterson sitting
in for Chris. It is the day that the Lord
has made. Come on let's rejoice. Let's be glad in it.
Our God is still God. He's still Lord, and he's
worthy of all of the praise. I can't wait to
dive into the show today. We've got a special guest,
(00:41):
and I believe what he has to share will inspire
you to walk and talk and live in the spirit
and be all that God has called you to be.
I'm grateful for the team. My goodness, to have someone
on the board like Ryan McConaughey, and then to have
a producer like Tricia McMillan and to have folks on
(01:03):
the phones, we're going to open the phone lines, as
a matter of fact, so that you can call and
be a part of this discussion today. Hey, before I
announce our guest, let me pause and say thank God
for John MacArthur. What a wonderful pioneer. He sold so
many books, preached so many sermons, founded Grace Community Church,
(01:25):
and so many people were impacted by his ministry. And
so we just want to pause for a moment to
mention him and to say thank God for what God
has done through him. Hey, let me pause and thank
God for you as well. Maybe you won't sell a
lot of books or stand in front of millions of people,
but God is using you in that living room, in
that basement, in that backyard, wherever you might be. Just
(01:50):
continue to pray and sing that song. Have thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way. You're the potter, I'm the clay.
Mold me and make me after your will. While I'm waiting.
Yielded and still. Hey, thanks again for joining me here
on equipped with Chris Brooks. Let's continue to pray for
Chris and his family, his lovely wife Jody, and the precious,
(02:10):
precious loved ones in their home. Uh, he's still going
through a season of care for his daughter, and I
love the fact that he's put family first. And so
let's keep Chris and the the family in our prayers, okay? Hey,
today we've got a wonderful guest. His name is Todd Nettleton.
He's the vice president for message and the host of
(02:32):
voice of the Martyrs Radio. He is a speaker. He
is an author. He's a family man. He is someone
that loves the Lord and loves the body of Christ
and can see what's going on inside the church and
in the world. The voice of the martyrs is a
missionary organization serving persecuted Christians in the world's most difficult
(02:56):
and dangerous places to follow. Christ. Todd, how are you?
S2 (03:05):
Yeah, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.
S1 (03:07):
Oh, man, I'm so glad that you're here. When I
was looking at your bio and looking at voices of
the martyrs, I thought, this is going to be a
special time. Can you tell us how you got involved
with voice of the martyrs?
S2 (03:22):
I can tell you the short version, the long version
goes back to 1982. I was 12 years old and
my parents, we had a little family conference and my
parents said, hey, we think God is calling us to
go to Papua New Guinea. And I was just about
to enter junior high. I was excited about school, sports
and lots of activities and it was 3 to 1.
(03:44):
I voted no, let's not go to Papua New Guinea
and everyone else voted yes. Let's go to Papua New Guinea.
But we decided I and I said, you know, if
that's what God is calling us to do, that that's
what we need to do. Sure. And so 12 years old,
I moved off to Papua New Guinea. And really, some
of the seeds that God planted in my life during
those four years we lived in Papua New Guinea. We
(04:05):
didn't have a television. So I learned how to read
for fun and enjoyment. Uh guess what? Today I'm a writer. Well,
if you're going to be a writer, you better be
a reader. And so that is one of those seeds.
I love getting on an airplane and going someplace I
have never been before, and meeting new people, trying to
figure out a little bit of the language, hey, how
(04:26):
do I find a bathroom in this country? What are
the foods that I should eat? What are the foods
that I should definitely run away from?
S3 (04:33):
Right?
S2 (04:34):
Those kind of things are fun to me. And all
of that started at age 12 when we got on
that airplane and flew across the Pacific. And like I
say at the time, I was a no vote. I
was like, no, I don't want to go. Uh, but
the Lord already had in mind what he wanted me
to do with my life. And he started planting seeds
even in that trip to Papua New Guinea. And so
(04:55):
we came home four years later. I eventually went to college,
I studied communications, I was a sportswriter for a little
while at a local paper, uh, and then a job
opened up at voice of the martyrs. And the person
who hired me is married to my college roommate, and
so she was given the task of building a communications
department at Vom. And they took us, my wife and I,
(05:18):
out to dinner, and she said, I need someone who
can write press releases and tell stories. And I said, well,
I can write press releases and I can definitely tell stories.
Let's go. And that was almost 28 years ago now.
So 27 in serving in Vom. And just what a
blessing it has been over those years to meet so
(05:38):
many heroes of the faith. I absolutely I get to
sit down and drink tea and drink coffee with the
Apostle Paul's and the Apostle Peter's of today and ask
them questions. Hey, what? You know what? What was it
that got you singing in that jail cell? How did
you decide what song to sing? I get to have
those conversations with today's heroes of the faith, and it
(06:00):
is just such a privilege to be able to serve
in this way.
S1 (06:04):
When I think of missionary work, I think of people
who are willing to stand when everybody else is sitting down,
or people who are willing to speak up when others
are quiet. I am convinced that people need to share
the gospel, whether it's on the South Side of Chicago,
the east side of Cleveland, in the Tampa area, wherever
(06:27):
it might be. But we also need to understand that
there is a danger zone that comes with this. Let's
talk about the mission of voice of the martyrs. Tell
us what it's about and and how God is using vom.
S2 (06:41):
Well, the voice of the martyrs is a ministry, as
you mentioned, to persecuted Christians. So we are working in
more than 70 countries around the world where persecution for
your faith in Christ is part of following Christ. When
you come to Christ in these places, you know this
is going to cost me something. Maybe it'll cost me
my family, maybe it'll cost me my home, maybe it'll
(07:02):
cost me my job, maybe it will cost me my life.
But you know, from day one, if I'm going to
follow Jesus, there's there's going to be a price to
be paid.
S3 (07:10):
Yeah, yeah.
S2 (07:11):
Voice of the martyrs seeks to come alongside those who
are paying that price, to encourage them, to equip them,
to let them know they're not alone, and to let
them know the body of Christ around the world is
with them. We're standing with them. One of the really
unique things about the DNA of voice of the martyrs
is our founders. Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and his wife Sabina
(07:31):
were persecuted Christians. Pastor Richard spent 14 years in prison
in Communist Romania. His wife Sabina spent three years herself
in prison.
S3 (07:40):
Wow.
S2 (07:40):
Plus all the years living without Richard while he was
in prison. So when they stood up and said, hey,
we need to help persecuted Christians, they knew exactly what
they were talking about. They knew how desperately that help
was needed. And they also understood, though, that that God
works through persecution. God strengthens the church. He spreads the gospel.
There are blessings to be found in the midst of persecution.
(08:03):
They understood that side of the story as well. So
the the ministry has always been about persecuted Christians in
those hostile areas and restricted nations, but it is also
about American Christians who need to hear those stories. They
need to know that God is faithful, even when we're suffering,
even when we're in a situation we would not have chosen,
God is still faithful. God is still able to advance
(08:25):
his kingdom through those circumstances. And it's we get great
blessings as American Christians who aren't persecuted by knowing the
stories of our brothers and sisters, and by understanding God's faithfulness,
even in the midst of really difficult circumstances.
S3 (08:41):
Mm.
S1 (08:41):
I'm fascinated about the support factor, the the fact that
you guys are trying to assist, to encourage, to help
take us a little bit deeper. What do you do
to minister to either those who are at death's door
or for the family that's left behind? Are there some
specific things that you you do?
S2 (09:03):
There are certainly some specific things we do, but it
is always feel driven and we are always working with
local church leaders in that country. So, so our staff
that goes into a place like Nigeria doesn't land with
sort of a menu of here's what Vom could do
for you. Which one do you want? Instead, they come
(09:24):
alongside church leaders in that location and they say, hey,
what are you doing? How are things going? Where are
the places that we could help you and what would
that help look like? And so in many cases, you
mentioned someone who maybe their husband is a pastor and
he's in prison. They they need to make sure they
have a roof over their head. They need to make
sure that their kids can still afford school fees while
(09:46):
he's in prison. We want to help with those kinds
of needs. In some places, somebody's been injured because of persecution,
and they need to go to a doctor. And in
their culture in that society, as a Christian, they might
not be able to get to a good doctor, but
we can come alongside and say, hey, we're going to
cover that hospital bill. Make sure you go to a
good hospital and get a good doctor. We'll take care
(10:08):
of whatever the fees are that are with that. Sometimes
it's hiring a lawyer. Uh, you know, in some places,
I think of India. The Constitution says India has religious
freedom now. They're sort of running away from that right now.
But there are pastors in jail, and it can simply
be hiring a lawyer who will go to court, represent
them and say, hey, wait a minute, this is not constitutional,
(10:30):
what you're doing. And so that could be as little
as like 200 bucks to get a pastor out of prison.
Every one of those projects is different. Every one of
them is driven by what our brothers and sisters in
that country tell us they need.
S1 (10:45):
Well, that's extremely important, and to be honest, it's very inspiring.
Love what you are doing and how God is using
voice of the martyrs. We've got Todd Nettleton on the
line and this is what we will do. We'll hear
some stories about men and women who have decided I'm
going to follow Jesus no matter what. This gospel that
(11:06):
we've got is so precious and so profound and so powerful.
We've got to share it with this dying world. Hey,
I'm Roy Patterson. I'm sitting in for Chris Brooks. Thanks
for joining us here on equipped.
S4 (11:30):
Do you have questions about your sexuality that no one
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And when you do, everything changes. Request your copy with
(11:53):
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S1 (12:09):
Welcome back to equipped with Chris Brooks I'm Roy Patterson
sitting in today. We've got Todd Nettleton with us today.
And it's just fascinating to hear what our brothers and
sisters are going through around the world. Hey, before we
hear some more stories of faith and commitment, Todd, I
just I just want to know, um, when we think
(12:33):
of folks in the Bible who've gone through who have
been martyrs like Stephen and James and Peter and church
fathers like Polycarp, what made them willing to pay the
ultimate price?
S2 (12:47):
You know, I think it's such a great question. And
I think at the end of the day, they realized
that what they had in Christ was worth more than
what they were giving up in, in this life.
S3 (12:59):
Yeah. Yeah.
S2 (12:59):
And I think once you understand that sort of value proposition, um,
it's like, okay, well, you're going to take my life. Okay,
that's fine, because I have something more valuable than that.
I have eternal life. Um, the other thing that happens, though, is,
is just the experience of Christ's presence is so real
that nobody can talk you out of it. I think
(13:21):
of brothers and sisters that we have in in the
country of Laos, in Southeast Asia and, and in some
cases they meet Jesus on Tuesday and they're persecuted on Thursday,
and they stand up in their faith. It's not like
they have to go to Bible school and then go
to seminary to get ready for that. It's like, no, no,
I don't care what you say because I met Jesus
(13:42):
and he is real. In some cases it is he.
I was sick and now I am well healed. Me.
I know he's real. So if you tear down my house,
or if you kick me out of the village, you know,
that's fine, because I know he's real. And so once
they've had that experience of the reality of Christ, and
certainly when we talk about Peter and Paul and some
(14:04):
of those church fathers, they definitely experienced that encounter with Christ.
And then you can't be talked out of that.
S1 (14:14):
It really is something about being born again. Finding that
precious pearl in the field and saying, I'm willing to
pay whatever price for it. Now, I'll be honest with you, Todd,
in America, most of us are thinking Jesus is a
great accessory. Now, I'm just talking about the message that
I've heard over and over again. He will make me happy.
He will give me a car. He will give me
(14:37):
a roof over my head. He'll do all this stuff.
All I got to do is accept him. In my life.
And for many believers in our country, we think, ah,
persecution is a thing of the past. Church fathers, uh, folks,
back in Bible days, what are you seeing on a
global stage?
S2 (14:55):
Let me talk a little bit about that message, because
one of the challenges of that, then, if the gospel
that you heard is accept Jesus because he's going to
make your life.
S3 (15:06):
Better, right? Right.
S2 (15:07):
And then hardship comes. It knocks you off course.
S3 (15:11):
It really does.
S2 (15:11):
Because you're like, wait a minute, I thought Jesus was
going to make my life better. And now my wife
has cancer. Now I lost my job. Where's Jesus in
all of this?
S3 (15:20):
Yeah.
S2 (15:21):
The gospel message in a place like China or Iran
is very, very different. It is come to Jesus. He's
going to make your eternity better. But your life here
on earth is probably going to get worse. Like, just
prepare yourself. In fact, I've talked with evangelists who before
they will like, pray and baptize somebody. They they ask
(15:43):
them the hard like, are you ready for your family
to reject you? Yes, I'm ready for that. Are you
ready to lose your job? Yes. I'm ready. Okay. Now
I'll baptize you because you already understand this is going
to cost you. So I think one of the challenges
for us as American believers is not to share that
Jesus wants to make everything great for you, come and
(16:03):
meet him, but to share that, yeah, he's going to
call you to sacrifice sometimes. Yeah, you're going to have
hardship in your life, but he's going to walk beside
you through that. He's even going to carry you part
of the time through that. That message. Then when hardship comes,
we're like, oh yeah, they told me this was going
to happen. Instead of Jesus, where are you? How could
you let these things happen to me? That's the difference
(16:26):
in the gospel message. And it produces different fruit. It
produces different results.
S1 (16:31):
All right. So when we think of countries like Laos
and India, etc., there are people there who've lost everything.
Land has been stripped from them and lives have been taken.
Talk about the global stage. What are you seeing?
S2 (16:46):
You know, in a lot of places we see persecution increasing.
I think of China in the last 5 to 10 years,
persecution in China has increased dramatically. The government now. Ten
years ago, we would talk about persecution by province. You
would say, hey, in this province there's a lot of persecution.
But in this province, over here, there is not a
(17:08):
lot of persecution. The church is really operating with a
lot of autonomy. What we see today is this is
coming from the national government in Beijing, and I believe
it is driven by XI Jinping, by the president of China.
He before he was president, he was a provincial leader,
and his province was one of those that had a
lot of persecution. He was really trying to control the church.
(17:31):
He was really trying to close down unregistered churches. And
I believe he sees that as as part of what
made him successful. Look, I was a provincial leader. We
persecuted the church and I got a promotion. Now I'm
the president of the whole country. I better keep doing
what I've been doing. And so he has brought that
to the national level. And persecution is driven by Beijing.
(17:54):
In fact, we've heard from Christians around China that Beijing
is sending out trainers to local police. They are saying,
this is how you control religion. This is how you
do it. So that's a place we're seeing it get worse.
We're seeing it. We're seeing a lot of persecution in
the Middle East and persecution in some cases getting very,
very violent, very hard there. There's a good side to
(18:17):
that story, though, as as I say, there is more persecution.
One of the things that is also happening is the
church is growing. And so when you talk about like
North Africa and you say, wow, there's more persecution in
North Africa. Well, part of the reason for that is
because there are more Christians in North Africa. There are
more people following Jesus there. So there are, of course,
(18:37):
more targets for persecution simply because there are more followers
of Christ.
S1 (18:43):
It really is an amazing thing. Um, it seems like
as a church grows, there's some growing pains. And it
seems like persecution is is part of it. Where on
the one hand, you've got, um, the world, you've got
the government that wants to oppress and and hold people back.
On the other hand, it really is a satanic drive,
(19:06):
a satanic move to, um, to tear the church down.
Is it true that where there is persecution, there is
more power? And the gospel seems to go forth a
little longer, harder? People are more aware of Jesus? Is
that what you've seen?
S2 (19:24):
I think it's often true. I wouldn't say 100% of
the time that's true. I think of I had a
conversation with Nick Ripken, the author of The Insanity of God,
and he talked about in Somalia. They essentially hunted Christians
and almost wiped out the church.
S3 (19:39):
Wow.
S2 (19:40):
Um, so so, you know, I like I said, I
don't want to say 100% of the time.
S3 (19:44):
Sure.
S2 (19:44):
But there are certainly ways that persecution spreads the gospel. And,
you know, we look at the book of acts, this
is not a new thing. This goes back to the
book of acts. One of the things that happens is
as Christians are able to respond to their persecutors with
love and forgiveness, which is a Holy Spirit thing. It
is not a natural response. It is a Holy Spirit
(20:07):
empowered response to say, hey, even though you're persecuting me,
I love you. I'm praying for you. I'm praying that
God will bless you and your family even though you've
locked me in prison. When that happens, the person who
is persecuting and all the people around who are seeing that,
they look at that and they say, how did they
do that? Well, wait a minute. And they start to say,
(20:29):
there must be something real to this Jesus stuff, because
look at how his followers respond when we persecute them.
They love us when we are harsh towards them, they
pray for us. There has to be something real because
they see that response. And and they know, just like
we know that's not natural. Our natural fleshly response is, hey,
(20:51):
if you hit me, I'm going to hit you.
S3 (20:52):
Back, right? Right.
S2 (20:53):
But Christians say, I'm going to pray God's blessings on you.
That is one of the ways the gospel spreads, because
the persecutors see that all the people around see that
and they start asking questions. And that's, you know, the
first step of, wait, what? What is different about these Christians?
We just had a conversation with a lady on voice
of the Martyrs radio, Sister Nada from Iran, and she
(21:15):
came to faith in Christ after after really calling out
to Allah. She was trying to serve Allah. And finally
she said she would start vacuuming because the vacuum made
a lot of noise and she would literally yell at Allah, Allah,
you're not helping me. You can't do anything for me.
Why aren't you showing up? Then a relative came and
visited and showed shared Christ with her. She became a
(21:37):
follower of Christ and within two weeks her husband. Now
their marriage had been really on the cusp of divorce.
Within two weeks of her coming to faith in Christ,
her husband took her aside and said, what? What happened
to you? Like, what is different about you? What changed
that led to a conversation which led her husband to
also follow Christ. They became evangelists, church planters working in Iran.
(21:59):
Very difficult situation, facing a lot of persecution. But that's
what happened because he saw how different she was when
she was walking with Jesus.
S1 (22:09):
What a wonderful change is brought forth in the lives
of believers when Jesus is real. All right. So two
questions are in my mind. Um, I think I'll go
with this one. Um, when you think of the American church,
do you ever think this persecution is coming our way?
We can. We can be as comfortable as we want,
but it's coming. Problems are coming. Do you ever think
(22:32):
along those lines?
S2 (22:35):
Uh, as an American Christian, I try not to. It's like.
S3 (22:40):
I don't.
S2 (22:40):
I don't I want the fruit of persecution, but I
don't want the persecution, right.
S3 (22:44):
Right, right.
S2 (22:44):
I want all this, all this great stuff that comes
out of it. I think when you look at our
culture and you look at how the winds are blowing,
I think you have to say, yeah, there there could
be hardship coming our way. And also, as you look
into the Scripture, you know, Jesus said, the world hates me.
And if you follow me, the world is going to
hate you, too.
S3 (23:04):
Yeah. Yeah.
S2 (23:05):
For most of us as American Christians, that has not
been our experience. And so you read those verses. You
look at the way the wind is blowing. What I
encourage people is you need to prepare yourself for persecution.
If you're prepared and persecution starts tomorrow, then you're prepared.
And if you're prepared and it doesn't start for 20 years,
(23:25):
or it doesn't start until after you go to heaven,
that's okay. You were still prepared. And so I think
we as American Christians need to prepare ourselves. And I
think there's two ways to do that. One is, is
the Scripture we talked about that. It talks about persecution.
The New Testament talks a lot about persecution.
S3 (23:43):
And how.
S2 (23:43):
To follow Christ in the midst of that. The second
way we prepare and I ii like a football analogy.
So if I'm going to play the Patriots on Sunday,
I'm going to watch the video of the team that
played the Patriots and beat them last Sunday. I want
to see what plays did they run? How did they
do that? We have the video of persecution. We have
the stories of Christians who have been victorious in the
(24:05):
face of persecution. We can go to school on those
stories and say, hey, what did they do? How did
they meet together? How did they encourage each other? What happened?
That's another way that we prepare ourselves. And as I say,
I don't want to say, you know, persecution is absolutely coming.
Here's what it's going to start. I do want to
say be ready. Be ready yourself. Make sure that your
(24:28):
children are ready. Make sure that your grandchildren are ready.
Because if we're ready, then we're ready. Whether it starts
tomorrow or sometime in the future, we're ready to keep
on advancing the gospel even in the face of persecution.
S1 (24:42):
So important, so, so important. And I think for most
of us, we've had people roll their eyes. We've had
people laugh at us. We've had people who've talked about
us behind our backs. And there are some people that
have been roughed up for their faith. But as far
as knives being pulled, guns being drawn, that just has
not been the case. What I do admire about those
(25:04):
that have had that persecution experiences the mindset of I'd
rather have Jesus than silver or gold, I'd rather have
Jesus than riches untold. I'm thrilled with the fact that
you are doing what you're doing. We're going to take
a break. I cannot wait to hear more of what
God is doing, and I really want to know if
there's some some signposts along the way that will say, hey,
(25:29):
this could be an indication that trouble is on the horizon.
And as you've already mentioned, hey, let's be prayerful. Let's
get in the word and let's fortify ourselves so that
we continue to let our lights shine. Henry Patterson I'm
sitting in for Chris Brooks here on equip. So grateful
for Todd Nettleton and what he's doing with voice of
(25:51):
the martyrs. Important stuff. Really, really important stuff. So I
want you to keep it locked right where it is.
I'm thankful for you. And we'll take some calls right
after this. On equipped. Welcome back to equipped. Have you
(26:20):
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and build strongholds that separate us from God? We start
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(26:45):
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Org that's equipped radio.org. We've got Todd Nettleton with us
today a voice of the martyrs. It's a joy to
(27:06):
have him with us. And what a conversation. It's inspiring.
It's what we need to look at. Hey, Todd, you're
just getting back from a meeting with Vom workers in Asia.
Can you talk about it?
S2 (27:20):
Yeah, this was a gathering of, uh, some of our
frontline workers that that serve on the ground in places
like Vietnam and Laos and Indonesia and Burma. And, uh,
the meeting was for encouragement, spiritual encouragement for them, some
some training for them, for me, it was a chance
to fellowship and just hear about what they do. These
(27:41):
are the people who are on the ground and and
when we get a call that, you know, hey, a
pastor's house has been burned down. They're the ones who
get in a taxicab or get on a train or
get on a bus, and they go to the village
where the pastor's house has just been burned down. And
they say, okay, pastor, are you okay? Is your family okay?
What do you need? How can we help? And so
(28:01):
they really see and have to process a lot in
the course of their work. And one of the staff
members talked about, uh, just last year, one of the
people that he was working with was shot and killed, right,
right in his front yard, right in front of his
wife and kids. It was a pastor who had been
threatened repeatedly, uh, told, you know, stop what you're doing.
(28:22):
Stop evangelizing. And two men showed up on a motorbike.
They asked for him at the door, and then they
shot him. And are my coworkers talked about how hard
that has been to to just process like. Like this
guy was gunned down for the work that he was doing.
We're walking with his widow through the grief and the
(28:43):
trauma and the upsetness and the, you know, how do
I keep going? What do we do? And that is
a heavy weight that that many of my coworkers who
are on in those frontline positions, they bear that weight.
And so to be able to go and meet with
them and pray with them and encourage them, uh, was
a great privilege for me. But it also brought I
(29:04):
came back with a new respect and a new desire
to pray for those frontline workers, because it is it
is a tough job. It is a difficult thing to
go through that and to to have encounters with loss
and grief and suffering all the time as a part
of your job. Uh, it's a tough job. And so
I would encourage our listeners, you know, pray, pray for
(29:24):
viewing workers who are out in the field because they
do have a very difficult job.
S1 (29:29):
It is difficult. My goodness. Hey, I want to open
the phone lines. Maybe you'd like to talk to Todd
and share your story. Maybe you've been persecuted. Maybe you
know someone that has laid down their lives for the faith.
We love to get a brief comment from you. Maybe
you have a question. Here's the number to call. It's 87754836758775483675.
(29:54):
All right. So Todd, you've also had the opportunity to, um,
to hear the story about Syria and the church bombing there.
Bring us up to speed on that.
S2 (30:04):
Yeah, I was interested, even as I opened up my
news app this morning. There's been violence in Syria again
over the weekend, this time targeting the Druze religious minority.
There was a church bombing on June 22nd. Uh, gunmen
slash bomber came into a Greek Orthodox church. So this
is a sort of a visible above ground building church.
(30:26):
He came in, he opened fire. And then, as I believe,
as they closed in to try to stop him, he
blew himself up. And so 25 people killed dozens of
Christians injured in this attack. And this is happening. So
last December, a new government took over Syria. They pushed
out Bashar al Assad. And as they took power, they
(30:48):
made a lot of promises. They said a lot of
things about a Syria that is safe for religious minorities,
a Syria that is safe for all the different ethnic minorities.
And this attack, other attacks, the violence that's happened even
over the weekend is really saying all of that was
just talk like they are not living up to that.
(31:09):
They are not protecting Christians. The other thing I want
to remind our listeners about, so this was a Greek
Orthodox Church that is a traditional Christian community in Syria.
When they say, we want to protect Christians, that's what
they're saying. They want to protect. And again, there's a
lot of questions about how much they really want to.
They are not saying they will protect someone born in
(31:31):
a muslim family who is now a follower of Jesus Christ.
Maybe they had a dream where Christ appeared to them.
Maybe they heard a Christian broadcast, or they met a
Christian who led them to faith in Christ. But because
they were born in a muslim family, they are not
offered any protection. They are considered an apostate. The Quran
teaches that an apostate should be given one opportunity to
(31:52):
return to Islam, and if they refuse, they should be executed.
And so when you hear the Syrian government talk about, hey,
we want to protect Christians, make sure you understand they
are talking about traditional Christian communities. They are absolutely not
talking about Muslim background believers who do not have protection
in Syria or frankly, in most other Muslim countries because
(32:16):
they are seen as apostates.
S3 (32:18):
Mhm.
S1 (32:19):
You wrote a book called when Faith is forbidden. And um,
as I hear you talk about these different scenarios, I'm
fascinated and I tremble a little bit because it is
so different from what we are hearing in our country.
And I'm a preacher. I say to people, hey, you
want Jesus in your life, I want you to come forward.
(32:41):
We're going to pray this prayer. But I'm trying to
remember the last time I said to them, you will
be ostracized. You will be criticized. You could suffer physical
harm for your faith, but Jesus is worth accepting. He
is worth following. Talk about your book when faith is
forbidden and and what you've discovered.
S2 (33:03):
Well, the book is published by Moody Publishers, and, uh,
it is it's really an invitation to you as a reader.
Why don't why don't we go on a trip together
and let's go meet some persecuted Christians? And so it
is written as a 40 day sort of travelogue slash devotional.
And every day during that 40 days, we're going to
hear a story from a persecuted Christian. And these are
(33:24):
stories that I've heard face to face over my 20
plus years here at voice of the martyrs. And my
promise to the reader is, if you spend 40 days
hanging out with persecuted Christians, your faith is going to
look different on day 41 than it did when we
started this journey. Because when you meet these brothers and
sisters and you hear how willing they are to sacrifice
(33:45):
and and you see the joy on their faces, that's
one of the really strange things. Almost as I go
to meet persecuted Christians, I remember early in my time
at Vom, I sort of had this idea that, you know,
I'm going to go from America, and isn't it great
that I can be there because I'm going to cheer
them up? They're probably very discouraged and depressed. They've been persecuted.
(34:06):
And then I would get there and they would be
filled with joy, more joy than I see at my
church on a Sunday morning. They would be filled with
the joy of the Lord, and I had to learn
very quickly. Lord, actually, I'm not here to encourage them.
I'm here to learn from them because they're doing something right.
And so, like I say, that that's the premise of
the book, is let's go together, let's spend 40 days
(34:28):
and let's meet a persecuted Christian every single day. Let's
hear their story. Let's drink a cup of tea with them.
And on day 41, your faith will look different, because
there's no way it can't look different. After meeting these
brothers and sisters and hearing their stories.
S1 (34:42):
Here's the number to call 87754836758775483675. If you'd like to
talk to Todd and share your story of persecution or
someone that you know has been persecuted, somehow you've been
inspired by this conversation, please give us a call (877)Â 548-3675. So, Todd,
(35:07):
as I'm hearing you, I'm thinking about, um, some people
in America, Tom Skinner is is one of them. He
was the leader of a gang and found Christ, as
it were, and told the gang, you know, I've decided
to follow Jesus, and he had trained them. No one
gets out of this gang alive. And now he's turning
his back. And as he's walking out, he's expecting someone
(35:30):
to stab him, to beat him with a chain, to
shoot him. And by God's tremendous grace, he walks out unscathed.
As he's walking down the street, a couple of his
lieutenants run up behind him, and he braces himself because
he's got the kind of salvation that says, don't fight back,
don't pick up a weapon. And they stand in front
(35:50):
of him and say, what was that? What? What happened?
And he said, well, I just testified, I've got Jesus
in my life. They said, no, not that. The fact
that when you made the statement you made, we were
going to kill you. And something stopped us. We could
not physically move. So we want to know what that was.
And those guys accepted Christ as Savior. It seems like
(36:14):
it's two sides. It's one where God is protecting and
the other side. God gives grace so that you can
still die. You can still die believing who he is
and what he wants to do. so. So have you
heard both sides of that story, Todd?
S2 (36:31):
Yeah, I you know, one of my favorite stories from
early on in my time is a group in Bangladesh.
A group of radical Muslims came to the home of
a Christian. Their intent was to burn down the house,
to harm the Christian inside. When they arrived and got
close to the building, they heard this Christian inside praying
for them. He was praying, God, move in our village.
(36:53):
Bring people to faith. Help these men to come to
know you and similar situation like it was like they said,
they ran into like a force field around this house
where they they could not physically approach the house to
light it on fire or to attack the man. It
was something the power of God was there protecting him.
S3 (37:12):
Mhm.
S1 (37:13):
Fascinating. I appreciate what you are sharing today. Can't wait
to get back to hear some more stories of what
God is doing for those who have been delivered from situations,
and those who said I'd rather have Jesus than to
have safety and to have comfort. Hey, you guys, stick around.
Todd Nettleton, a voice of the martyrs, is with us today.
(37:34):
Inspiring stories of folks who committed to Jesus no matter what.
I'm Roy Patterson. I'm sitting in for Chris Brooks. Thanks
for hanging out with me. I'd love to hear from you. (877)Â 548-3675.
This is equipped.
S4 (37:57):
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(38:19):
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S1 (38:38):
Welcome back to equip with Chris Brooks I'm Roy Patterson
sitting in. We've got Todd Nettleton of Voice of the
martyrs with us today. Fascinating, inspiring. Oh, it's causing me
to look at Christ in a new way and to
live a determined life no matter what. I've got to
have Jesus, and I want to make him known. Hey, Todd,
(39:01):
you were telling me about Ethiopia. Can you let our
audience know what's up?
S2 (39:05):
Yeah. This is an interesting story. So this is about
an evangelist who was martyred during the month of May. Uh,
his name is Ibrahim Mohammed. And I often tell people I,
I love to meet Christians named Muhammad, uh, because that
means they weren't born in a Christian family.
S3 (39:21):
You know, Christian.
S2 (39:22):
Christian parents aren't naming their kids Mohammed in Ethiopia. This
is a young man who came to faith in Christ
in 2021. So just four years ago, immediately as he
became a believer, he started telling other people. And within
a year, he had led 80 other people to faith
in Christ.
S3 (39:40):
Wow.
S2 (39:40):
Just as a brand new believer, like he's like, man,
this is so great. This is so exciting. I got
to tell everyone I know. He continued that evangelism, in
spite of a lot of pressure against him, there were
threats against him. People told him, shut up, stop talking.
You've got to stop what you're doing. He just kept
on telling people about Jesus. And it seems like what
(40:02):
sort of crossed over the line is. Earlier this year,
he set aside a part of his property to build
a church building, and they started construction on a church
building where these believers could gather. And again, it was
on his property, but he set aside some of it.
They started building a church. that seems to sort of
(40:23):
have been the last straw. Okay, now you're not just
leading people to Jesus. You're going to build a church building.
You're going to gather Christians together in our city, in
our town. We can't let you do that. And so
on May 15th, our brother Ibrahim Muhammad was shot by
two men dressed in Islamic clothing. He was taken to
(40:43):
the hospital. He died three days later from those injuries.
But this is a young man, only four years walking
with Jesus, but such a bold evangelist that he was
seen as such a threat to the people around him,
that he was shot and killed, laying down his life
for Christ.
S1 (41:01):
There's a quote by Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr that says,
any man that's not willing to die for something is
not fit to live. And I think when people see
that we're willing to die for our faith in Jesus Christ,
it's a testimony that shakes them to the core. I
got to get your perspective on Steven and the fact
that he was stoned and the Apostle Paul happened to
(41:23):
be there with a coat check line. Can you talk
about that?
S2 (41:28):
Yeah. The thing about the story of Stephen that blesses
me every time I read it is he looked up
to heaven. He saw heaven opened and Jesus standing at
the right hand of Christ. And I, in my telling
of that story, or the way I interpret that, Stephen
was getting a standing ovation from Jesus Christ.
S3 (41:49):
Himself.
S2 (41:50):
As he was willing to lay down his life, and
as he forgave the people who were throwing stones at him. Father,
forgive them. I think when you end your life by
getting a standing ovation from Jesus himself, you can only
imagine when he arrived at heaven's gate. Well done, good
and faithful servant. I saw what you did. I saw
(42:12):
how you witnessed right up to your last breath. Um,
that's the part of Stephen's story that. And then you
mentioned Saul was standing there. Saul approved of what they
were doing.
S3 (42:23):
Yeah.
S2 (42:23):
And yet then he met Jesus and his life was
completely turned around. And again, it's like. It's like we
talked about with with friends. Even today, when they meet
Jesus face to face, they see him. They see his
hand at work. They cannot be dissuaded from following him
no matter what the cost is.
S3 (42:42):
Hmm hmm.
S1 (42:44):
All right, so you are involved in voice of the martyrs,
and you've seen so much. Heard so much. You've been
the child of a missionary. How has vom affected your
Christian walk?
S2 (42:57):
Such a great question. I have learned so much from
brothers and sisters around the world who have suffered, and
being able to ask them questions one on a very
practical level, one of the things that has changed is
how committed I am to reading God's Word.
S3 (43:13):
Hmm.
S2 (43:13):
I have met brothers and sisters who say, yeah, I
prayed for ten years that I could have my own Bible.
And and I sort of sheepishly, I think, reach into
my pocket and put my hand on my phone and think, wow,
I have I have multiple translations on my phone in my.
S3 (43:31):
Pocket.
S2 (43:32):
All the time, every day. But am I reading it?
Am I studying it? Am I letting it, you know,
affect me and wash me from the inside out? That
is something that has become a. Every year my wife
and I read through the Bible from start to finish.
We typically use, you know, a different plan from year
to year, maybe read a different translation from year to year.
(43:52):
But every year we want to read through God's Word.
And and that is a direct result of meeting brothers
and sisters who are willing to go to prison to
have a copy of the Bible, or to give someone
a copy of the Bible, and how that has impacted
me and how I every time I open the Bible.
I think this is a privilege. This is a blessing.
Can you imagine that we have this freedom? 24 seven
(44:15):
we can read God's Word anytime we want. We just
have to pull our phone out of our pocket. Brothers
and sisters around the world. Some of them would be
flabbergasted by that, and.
S3 (44:25):
They would.
S2 (44:25):
Certainly be flabbergasted that so many of us don't read
our Bibles. They're like, wait, you you have ten copies
of the Bible and you don't read any of them.
What what what are you doing? Like, what's going on
with you?
S3 (44:36):
Right.
S2 (44:36):
And so that is something that just very practically has
impacted the way I walk with Jesus. And it's directly
the result of the testimonies of my persecuted brothers and sisters.
S1 (44:48):
I'm thinking about that quote from Jim Elliot. He is
no fool. Are you familiar with that, with that quote?
S2 (44:52):
Absolutely.
S1 (44:53):
Can you share it? And, you know, I got like
25 seconds and just just talk about it a little bit.
S2 (44:58):
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot lose. And we have brothers
and sisters that are living that out even at this
moment around the world.
S1 (45:09):
So, so powerful. So for those who are being persecuted
and their families, how can we pray for them?
S2 (45:15):
Pray for God to empower them to suffer joyfully and
to forgive those who are persecuting them. Of course, we
want to pray for God's protection, but pray that they
will be faithful to Christ, even if there is difficulty,
even if there is persecution. Pray that they will stand
faithfully for Christ. The other thing I pray frankly is, Lord,
(45:35):
let them know that I'm praying for them, because one
of the lies of Satan is you're all alone. Nobody
cares about you. You're forgotten. So Lord, through the Holy Spirit,
let them know right now that I'm praying for them.
I've heard stories of how God answered that prayer, so
I know he does. But that's one of the ways
that I encourage people to pray for our persecuted brothers
and sisters.
S1 (45:56):
Before we go, let us know how people can get
in touch with voice of the martyrs.
S2 (46:01):
Persecution is the voice of the martyrs. Website. Persecution. Make
sure you sign up for the free monthly magazine while
you're there. It's right at the top of the page. Persecution. Com.
S1 (46:13):
I'm really inspired, Todd, by the work that you're doing
and voice of the martyrs. It's just inspiring me to
dig deeper, to reach higher, and to go further and
believe that God can use my pain, my persecution, my
difficulties for his glory and his honor. I want you
guys to reach out to Todd and Todd. Give us
that address one more time, please.
S2 (46:34):
Persecution.
S1 (46:36):
Make sure you do that, okay? I'm Roy patterson. I'm
sitting in for Chris Brooks. What a joy it is
to share with you. I'll be back another day. Cannot
wait to hang out with you. Equipped is a production
of the Moody Radio Network under the umbrella of the
Moody Bible Institute. I'm Roy Patterson. I thank God for you.
Keep going. Okay. Keep going. God is with you. Until
(46:58):
next time you walk in grace and peace.
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